Installing longer wheel studs in the rear of an XJ
My 1999 Rock Crawler XJ has been retrofitted with disk brakes. I think they are from a ZJ. However, whoever made the swap did not replace the wheel studs. The studs intended for drum brakes are way too short when used with disk brake rotors.
The right time to swap the studs would have been while the axles were out making the brake swap. But since that did not happen and I really did not want to pull the axles shafts out of the locker just to change wheel studs, I looked for another method.
With the rotor removed, I could just fish out the short stud past the parking brake shoe. However, there was no hope of installing a longer one.
So, I removed the hold down clip and the lower spring and adjuster so I could swing the parking brake shoe out of the way. I used studs from a 2000 XJ front hub for the replacements. This seemed to be the longest stud I could fit without removing the axle.
I used a big hammer to tap out the old studs. I do not intend on reusing them so I just pounded on the end of the stud until it popped out of the splines. I then used a magnet to fish it out past the brake shoe.
I harvested studs from on old hub I had in the scrap pile. I threaded on an old trailer lug nut until it was even with the end of the stud and hammered it out. A little heat on the hub made them much easier to remove.
After harvesting five, I decided to just buy five more at the parts store. I used Dorman part number 610-449.1.
To install the new studs I used a wheel stud install tool. https://amzn.to/3WJPzBA I lubed up the splines, and the tool and use my impact gun pull the stud into place. The first lug nut pulled in about 8 of the studs before it started to be hard to thread on. So I swapped to a different lug nut for the last couple. I would not recommend using one of the lug nuts you plan to use on the Jeep for pulling the studs into place. I let them cool a bit and then torqued them to 75 foot lbs before installing the wheels. I slipped the rotor on temporarily to make sure the heel of the stud did not interfere with pulling it down fully.
I then put the spring, adjuster and clip back on the rear shoe and reinstalled the rotor. I then put on the wheel spacers and noted the thread depth. I had about one thread through the lug nut so the length turned out perfect for my application. I torqued everything down and then mounted my wheels. I will recheck the torque again after I drive a few miles as I am sure the studs will settle in more as they heat cycle.